


(Something, like life, or the ability to trust)

by Anonymous



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Coming of Age, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Just teens being kids sitting out in a field, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:20:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27241822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Sharpay sighed, and carefully sat on her little pillar of solid rock.  No dust got on her, because no dust would dare.
Relationships: Troy Bolton & Sharpay Evans
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Anonymous





	(Something, like life, or the ability to trust)

Troy wiped sweat off his brow, and very carefully and casually did the armpit check. The sky was endlessly blue, like a basketball with inverted colors. He collapsed backwards, then winced and dug a rock out from under him. 

The thing about overdramatically monologuing in a big field is at some point you have to stop. You have to feel the dirt against your back, smell all that dust you kicked up, and just…be. You have to tune back into a world where you aren’t a star, where you don’t matter. And where your voice, hurt from singing a …supranltobaratone tune, no longer wanted to sing anything else. It was just Troy, the rocks, and the distinct lack of clouds.

Troy had always hated the rain, in the same way he had always hated the dark. He just didn’t like the gloom, didn’t like feeling it creep up his skin, didn’t like the stifling lack of spotlight. There was something horrible about not being seen, and he very rarely would choose it.

He heard a clacking sound, and lifted his head up half heartedly. There she was, Sharpay Evans. The main antagonist in the two films, High School Musical and High School Musical 2 along with her brother, Ryan Evans. She later become one of the main protagonists in the third film, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, as well as the main protagonist in her own solo movie, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure.

Beneath her feet, the ground seemed to smooth over, almost like the very essence of a mansion floor sprawled out beneath her. In actuality, the effect was more like the slow crawl of lava, unifying the landscape into one solid, smooth form. Perfect to be tapped on by her heels.

Troy groaned, and tossed his head back at the sky. The tapping got steadily closer.

He had decided to dislike her because either he had already had some thing happen where she tried to control him to get some duet thing or he had psychic visions of the future that told him that was going to happen. Sometimes time got a little wobbly, but that was life. Who was really there to tell the flow of time?

Clocks. And calendars. Both of which Troy adhered to religiously. But not something worth thinking of at right that moment.

Sharpay finally reached him, the smooth conglomerate beneath her coming to a halt only just before touching him. She looked down at him and scrunched her nose. Apparently that sniff test should not have passed.

“Troy. What are you doing in the middle of a field.”

“Sharpay. What are you doing bending the laws of reality.”

Neither were questions, and both were displeased by this.

Sharpay sighed, and carefully sat on her little pillar of solid rock. No dust got on her, because no dust would dare.

Troy sighed. Sharpay half heartedly kicked at his arm until he put them down, saving the local flora from the pit stank.

“Do you ever feel like…you’re made to be relatable? That everything you do is for commodification, and that you’re so….so normal, that who you are is completely swallowed?” 

Sharpay stuck her hands through the loops of her bow and looked at the sky.

“Not…really? I am exactly the best I can be. We’re just kids, you know. We don’t have to be complete.”

Troy flung his feet out in the dirt.

“Exactly! Now is the time to figure that out, figure out who were are, who we want to be, and how to get there. I had someone ask me what job I wanted to get after college. I don’t even know for sure if I’ll get into college, let along be able to graduate. What if something happens and I can’t pay for classes? Or what if someone frames me for murder?”

Sharpay blinked.

“Can your parents not simply drop loads of money onto the college admissions staff like some sort of, I don’t know, Operation Varsity Blues?”

Troy shrugged, his uniform getting scruffed in the dirt. He sat up.

“I guess? But how am I supposed to know if they can actually do that. Nobody’s talked to me about money, really.”

There was an awkward pause as Sharpay realized she also didn’t actually know how secure her situation was. But she waved it off, her nails cutting lines through the air that disrupted a gnats path.

“What we do now doesn’t matter because it’s just meant to help us figure out who we are later. We aren’t even going to be done developing until like, 25. That’s ages away. I’ll be old and depreciated by then.”

Troy sat forward, elbows on his knees, and watched a lizard investigate the dirt nearby.

The wind was slow, and if there were any clouds on the horizon, they were still too small to see. The air had that scruffy, dirt smell, and Troy couldn’t quite figure out if an animal had pooped nearby. It felt like such a large world, and such a small moment. Like he could bottle this up and take it somewhere, or maybe just exist right here. Forever. Stuck at 17, stuck at the empty blue sky, stuck at the nameless bliss of not having to have control. 

Troy had a lot of pressure to grow up. He knew Sharpay did too. It wasn’t like people just randomly started striving towards things. They had to learn that what they were wasn’t enough. That they couldn’t stay the same. That they were…not done yet.

Troy spent half his life thinking about musicals, and singing, and sometimes about basketball. He spent his time, way too much of it, worrying about his future. Logging volunteer hours, writing his future resume in his notebook of school activities. He didn’t know how to be any other way. He didn’t know how to stop striving for things. He definitely didn’t know what to do if he ever reached something.

Sharpay sighed.

“I think we have class soon.”

They looked at the building in the distance. It seemed so…looming. This big, amazing landscape, and humans had decided to build a tiny concrete block in the middle of it. Like the surroundings would excuse what happened inside.

Sharpay stood up, and brushed nothing off her dress.

“As soon as we’re back in there, you’re nothing to me.” She said. She seemed very young, but to Troy, that was just very human. He smiled, wiped his hands on his pants, and stood.

“Of course. I won’t let anyone know you chased after me.”

Sharpay rolled her eyes in disgust.

“For that, you don’t get to walk back to class on my platform.”

“Hey, come on!”

The landscape stayed behind them. Nothing left but a scruff in the dirt, and a long uprising in the dirt of solid stone. The lizard licked the air, ran under a rock, and made it’s own story underneath.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay if it's not frankly obvious- this is part of a "Write what you don't know challenge". Which, if you haven't heard of it (fair because I think its localized):  
> -Pick a fandom you barely know  
> -Pick characters you don't relate to  
> -Make a compelling story without researching deeply
> 
> So, no, never seen highschool musical, my entire knowledge comes from being gay in 2011 or whatever. I know they aren't going to be in character, but I hope they're at least something close to themselves. Have a nice night ya'll!


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